On-site inspections workshop
opens in Hiroshima

On-site inspections workshop
opens in Hiroshima

PI/2003/21

A workshop on Operations, Procedures and Equipment for On-Site Inspections (OSI) has opened on 30 June 2003 in Hiroshima, Japan. The workshop brings together some fifty participants from Australia, Chile, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovakia and the Provisional Technical Secretariat, as well as some retired experts from the United States. The workshop aims to facilitate the elaboration of the OSI Operational Manual, as well as field experiments and equipment development and testing, thus supporting the build up of the OSI regime.

The workshop is taking place from 30 June to 4 July. Participants were welcomed by Dr Haruhiro Fukui, President of the Hiroshima Peace Institute, and hosted at an evening reception by the Mayor of Hiroshima, Dr Tadatoshi Akiba.

Two sessions of the workshop are devoted to a review of the results and lessons of the 2002 OSI Field Experiment. Participants will also discuss new contributions to the OSI Operational Manual, and examine the development and testing of OSI equipment. The Executive Secretary of the CTBTO Preparatory Commission, Mr Wolfgang Hoffmann, and the workshop participants will participate in a flower-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph for A-bomb victims. They will also visit the Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum on 3 July 2003.

On-site inspections are regarded as a final verification measure of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, and can only occur once the Treaty has entered into force. To enter into force, the Treaty must be signed and ratified by the 44 States that formally participated in the work of the 1996 session of the Conference on Disarmament and that possess nuclear power or research reactors. Thirty-one of these States have ratified the Treaty. To date, 167 States in total have signed the Treaty, and 102 have ratified it.